Re: Palatalized s/t in Irish

Since nobody else has answered, I'll take a stab at this one:

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "gprosti" <gprosti@...> wrote:
>
> I believe that Old Irish palatalized <s,t> (as in <secht>, <ticfaid> etc.) are pronounced in Modern Irish like English <sh> and <ch> respectively.

I don't think this is universal, there are as far as I know areas where the outcome of *t' is still not an affricate. The outcome of *s' seems to be [S] generally, but anybody with better knowledge of Irish dialectology are invited to correct me.

> Are there any theories as to when this change happened?

There is a sound substitution, whereby initial English ch- is rendered by Irish s'- (already [S] then?) and non-initial -ch(-) is rendered by Irish -s't'(-) (i.e. [St']?). So at least at the time of this large group of English loan-words, there wasn't identity between Ir. t' and Eng. ch (or else t' would have been used).

> Is it thought to have had anything to do with English influence?
>

t' > "ch" might well have something to do with it. Again, anyone more knowledgeable in Irish dialoctology may have a different and better informed opinion.

Anders